Butter....milk????

When I got to this country I enjoy the most delicious scones I had  ever try in my life, so of course I asked for the recipe, everything looked normal to me until I got to the ingredient call Buttermilk??? Is this some kind of concoction out of milk and butter???? So I decide to investigate a little more, and found this is something in Venezuela we call Suero nothing else but soured milk... Well now I know what it was but I didn't have no even a drop of the dear liquid, since I had never use before for this kind of recipes but to eat with arepa, but that is another story.

So I decide to go and buy some, but there was the snow, and it was so cold outside that I decide to leave for a different day, but my sweet daughter decided she wants to eat the scones that day so she would ask our neighbor (since she was the one with the original scones and recipe) if she may have some buttermilk she may spare and so she went to the neighbor house and ask her to our surprise she came with a new recipe and apologize for not having buttermilk but explain to us how she never bought it because it was so easy to make your own.

So I gathered some different methods here remembering how my own gram mother used to make it...

The cultured buttermilk; I remember when my grams was running low on Suero she kept always the last cup of it and mix it with a liter of fresh milk, she use to left it at room temperature, now I understand it wasn't the TAPARA in which she used to storage but the Streptococcus Lactic a bacteria that comes in the buttermilk commercial that not only is good for you to obtain the buttermilk but also is good for your stomach like yogurt or at least that's what my gramma used to say

No doubt you may do it in a clean glass jar, as I had done it several times...but this are the Taparas that my gramma use back in Venezuela.

 


The acid plus milk;

Basically buttermilk is sour milk so mix a cup of milk with one tablespoon of lemon or vinegar, let it sit for 5-10 min is going to curdle....mix it again and you have buttermilk.

With cream of tartar plus milk;

By now you  have figure out that the base for buttermilk is milk so we will use one cup of milk and 1 3/4 of cream of tartar, mix it well and let it sit for 5-10 min, when it curdle mix it back and you have homemade buttermilk.

Use as needed and enjoy you delicious Buttermilk.....(insert your dish name here, e.i. pancakes, biscuits, scones etc)........

Homemade Buttermilk and of course Butter!

If by any chance a recipe ask for buttermilk I use to think what will i do with all that bottle/carton of buttermilk afterwards, so much for just a cup of butermilk or worse sometimes no even it.

Cant they sell smaller portions (probably yes; but they wont) so there are so many practical recipes that will tell you something very alike to what I am about to share but i think, the butter/buttermilk method is by further the best because offer you two products out of one while the milk lemon/vinegar offers you 1 product out of two .... sounds contradictory, weird some may say but I think we should get most out of everything so there you go!


Butter.....milk??? The one everybody may have the ingredients (even lactose intolerants)


For my favorite two out of one you will need 

Cream (yes, thats pretty much it) any cream should work just fine.

Steps to follow;

1.-Place the whole content of the cream on a blender or stand mixer.

2.-Blend for 2 to 7 min, yes is true in just a few minutes you will have delicious fresh butter and do you see the milky liquid under the butter you just churned? that is buttermilk old fashion buttermilk that is. Now you may get a sieve or a cheese cloth and strain the butter away from the buttermilk.

At this point you will have to decide if you wanted just the buttermilk for some pancakes there you go you have homemade buttermilk,

But I would recommend to place the butter back in the blender and some clean ice water, blend it for a couple seconds and throw away the water, repeat for 2 to 7 more times; I find that the most you repeat this process the better consistency your butter will have and it will keep longer too, even though if those pancakes were made with your favorite recipe... it may not last that long!

Another ingredient you may use with your butter is salt, not only will help with flavor but it help with the preservation part.

This butter you may keep in the refrigerator for a week or frozen for up to three months.

Usually I would mix half of this butter with some salt and fresh herbs... have you try a Ribeye topped with fresh herbs butter? if you dont, this is the time to try it.... or maybe you are more of a salmon kind of person; well I would do some parchment paper packages with vegetables topped with pieces of salmon place some slices of lemon... half a tablespoon of dill butter a sprinkle of salt... and voila! Enjoy this and any othe recipe, please remember to share pictures of your butter churning and recipes to follow with the final products.


How would you use either the butter or the buttermilk?

Vegetables quiche

Cuando llega el verano y lo que provoca es comer solo ensaladas y frutas es cuando necesitamos algo delicioso que podamos comer tanto frio como caliente en la busqueda de una opcion para mi madre a quien le gusta sus comidas calientes, mientras yo las prefiero frescas o frias y con un monton de vegetales..... Asi llegamos a un acuerdo, mezclando una proteina ( la mas practica de todas) los huevos con un grupo de vegetales hacemos este delicioso quiche.

Yo considero que dos personas pueden comer de un quiche como este, con un acompañante de ensalada y para quienes lo comen como mi madre algo de pan tostado.

No se necesita nada especial, mas que lo que ya se tiene lo cual lo hace increiblemente versatil, rapido, practico y delicioso......mi estilo de comida.

Ingredientes:

Para la base;

2 tazas de harina de almendras

2 huevos

2 claras de huevos

2 huevos enteros 

1 taza de vegetales  ( yo uso esparragos,brocoli, alcachofas, o definitivamente una mezcla blanqueados) picados en trozos pequeños

1 taza de espinacas picadas bien pequenas

1/4 taza de cebolla

2 dientes de ajo muy picadito

1/4 taza de su queso favorito (havarti o mozzarella, incluso de queso vegano)

3 cucharadas de crema de coco ( usa lo que pongas a tu cafe.... Crema, half and half, leche) 

1/2 cucharadita de aceite de coco

Precalienta el horno a 350 F 

Mezcla la harina de almendras con los huevos y las claras hasta que este todo integrado entonces vierte en un molde para pie y aplana hasta cubrir el molde ( tambien puedes hacerlo en moldes para ponquesitos. Hornea por 15 a 20 min o hasta que se vea dorado.

Mientras en un sarten pequeno y ligeramente caliente colocar el aceite de coco con la cebolla y dejarlo cocinar un poco cuando se vean transparentes se agrega el ajo saltear por un minuto y agregar las espinacas cuando estas se hayan mezclado bien con las cebollas y el ajo se tapa por un par de minutos y se saca de el fuego. 

En una taza mediana se baten los huevos hasta que esten espumosos agrega todos los ingredientes y revuelvelos cuidadosamente viertelos en la base previamente horneada ( esto evitara que la base se humedezca y se ponga muy suave)

Hornea por 30 minutos, dejar enfriar por 5 minutos sobre una rejilla, puedes disfrutar acompañandolo de una ensalada.